MoonThief
by markd315
Summary: Nightmare moon has risen to power. Zecora has been imprisoned and Celestia has been eclipsed. The best efforts of the Mane 6 mean nothing. They need a hero. This story details their resistance against an oppressive ruler. A legendary but cliche struggle of good and evil. Or is it. Rated T for language.
1. Prologue

"Day" 46, Week 22. 7:46 AM.

It was a dark and stormy night. There had been a lot of those recently. Actually, nothing but. Ever since Nightmare Moon took over, Equestria hadn't exactly seen any sunlight whatsoever. It was getting to the point of insanity. None of the crops would grow, and when no crops grow; people starve. When people starve, chaos ensues; thus chaos was ensuing at a speedy rate. Discord must be laughing in his grave. But regardless, the ponies were in trouble. Something needed to change. Something needed to happen. And something did.

Crying. A flash, if it could be called that. Kind of an anti-flash. What little light there was in the chamber disappeared in a "flash" of inky darkness. A little foal lay bleeding, newly born and newly dead. Nightmare Moon got up to leave, trusting that her attendants, whom she ruled only by force, would remove the new corpse from the premises.

But she was wrong. It wasn't a corpse. By some miracle, the foal had survived the deathblow. He was in no condition to do much of anything, but the baby was alive. Luckily it had the sense or instinct to remain silent as Nightmare Moon left the chamber, or perhaps it was merely unconscious.

Regardless, one of the attendants DID remove the baby from the castle. Unbeknownst to the Queen however, she also removed herself and a first aid kit. The mare fled the city as fast as her hooves could carry her, and as fast as she dared with the precious cargo.

She boarded a train at the last moment before it left, leaping aboard as the gates closed. "Sorry sir, I know I don't have a ticket, but it's a matter of life and death." She gasped, out of breath.

The ticket manager thought for only half a second before his sense of morality kicked in and he conceded a spare ticket to the exhausted mare.

She breathed a sigh of thanks and they were off. Behind her, the city shrunk in the distance and so did her worries. But she was mistaken. On the board she prepared a basket to keep the baby in. Putting him down, she went to use the restroom.

Then the ceiling of the plane flew off. Shit. Purple Heart stood unblinking at the Moon Alicorn. Stupid alicorns. Always flying and ruining my day, she half-thought. Suicidally, knowing it was over and just praying that she could delay the Alicorn long enough for someone else to take in the foal, she dashed at nightmare moon.

Holding her in stasis, Nightmare Moon questioned Purple Heart. "WHERE IS HE!?" She screamed.

Passengers fled.

"Up your ASS!" Purple Heart screamed back. She paid dearly for that. Her screams of agony racked the night. But she didn't give in. Tortured to death until, ironically, her heart stopped receiving O2, that wonderful drug that ponies need to live. She asphyxiated and Nightmare Moon's rage could be felt throughout the city. But she never cracked. Even with her best spells, Nightmare Moon could neither force the information out, nor extract it from the brain of the Mare. She had done her best. Now it was up to the now harsh land of Equestria and any higher force that might exist to decide what happened next.

Within hours, Nightmare Moon pulled a Herod. She ordered all foals under the age of 4 months to be slaughtered. But it did no good. Nobody listened. Nightmare Moon ruled by absolute force. Nopony liked her and nopony listened to her unless they were personally threatened. She couldn't personally kill every foal in Canterlot, let alone Equestria. The foal had escaped, albeit quite the worse for wear**.**

* * *

_Hey everypony. If you liked the opening, I would really like some feedback. This is my first story ever, fanfiction or otherwise; and I might have no talent for it whatsoever, but I thought I'd try it. I like new experiences, and since I read a lot to begin with this seems like a worthy venture._

_If you didn't like it, I'd at least like to know why. I haven't written much fiction, and my story probably suffers from that. Advice is great no matter what, even if phrased in insults. I already have the basic plot planned out, but we'll see what happens in terms of the details. I am uploading this the same time as Chapter one, so at least you get a 1000 word sneak peak at what I have so far. Tell me what you think. And as far as I can tell, these will be uploaded either irregularly or not at all feedback and free time permitting. Have a wonderful day._

_-EDIT 9/8/13-_

_I'm back with some more chapters. I now have a pretty damn clear idea of what I plan doing with this story. I already have the entire plot planned out, minus some revisions that I'm sure will pop up. But I already know what's going to happen and what themes I want to discuss and get across. Some shit is going to hit the fan when I get around to writing up Chapter 11. Have a nice day._


	2. Chapter 1

"Day" 47, Week 22. 3:49 PM.

Pinkie Pie's left nostril was twitching. And that could only mean one thing. She gasped. "Guys! My left nostril is twitching! And that can only mean one thing!" She said excitedly.

Twilight groaned. "What does it mean pinkie…" Despite her best empirical efforts, Twilight had not managed to uncover either the source or function of her many random signals.

"It means that somepony special escaped the wrath of Nightmare Moon and is going to save us! She yelped with glee."

Twilight groaned again. Sometimes Pinkies burning optimism could be painful. Even if her signals had proved right in the past, she had no scientific evidence whatsoever that would indicate that she spoke the truth. So she left without another word.

"But wait Twilight! This calls for a party!"

Nope. The purple pony had work to do and no time for such immature frivolities. Perhaps Rainbow Dash would entertain the enthusiastic earth pony, It wasn't her job.

"Day" 47, Week 22. 3:49 PM.

Zecora woke up in her cell unexpectedly, which was unexpected since she expected literally everything. In fact, nothing unexpected had happened in the last 47 years, so this unexpected event came rather unexpectedly. But seriously. She had predicted every event in the last 4.7 decades including both her imprisonment and the rise of Nightmare Moon (She really couldn't do anything about either. Sometimes her gift acted as a curse); and she couldn't predict her own sleeping habits? She must be losing her edge. She decided to make an herbal tea later to help her sense of divination out some. Suddenly she stopped breathing.

A flash of prophecy came to her unexpectedly. Yet again with the unexpectedness. The universe seriously needed to cut it out with all the meth. It was making life hard for her. She envisioned a looming smoggy city. A young starving foal. An enraged Nightmare Moon. And then the future: An element of hope: An element of harmony. One of the ones that Nightmare Moon keeps locked in her safe that even Zecora could not locate. And then darkness, as she was forced back into sleep by the device mounted to her head. Nothing she had just forseen would be remembered, as expected; except by you through the gift of foreshadowing. The universe was back to its shitty self again.


	3. Chapter 2

"Day" 23, Week 12, Almost 3 years later.

"Give it back Luke, you fag!" yelled some yellow pony.

Luke looked around. He hadn't taken anything from the other pony, simply picked up a ball to play with; what was he talking about?

"I'll tell Cheerilee!" He had made his point. Luke threw the ball to Dandelion Shimmer and sulked.

Nopony wanted to be his friend. Luke was "unique." He lacked a left ear and had scars down his cheek. His foster parents wouldn't tell him of their origin, but they were always drunk anyway. Regardless, Luke never made any friends at the preschool. Rather, he was singled out by the bullies because of his distinctiveness. It was pretty depressing, but he guessed that's how life went. He caught the train going home. Manehattan sucked. You could go anywhere in the city and hide wherever you liked, but due to the overcrowding; there was always somepony to laugh at your ugly face. Life just wasn't fair. Today, Luke decided to go to the pier and look at the reflections of his sorrows. He boarded a subway and sulked.

He found himself staring at one of many homeless, scarred, lonely ponies that were on the train; and came to the realization that he wasn't really alone. There was at least one pony that had had a rougher life. Although, that consoled him minimally, he was still depressed.

The train doors opened and he disembarked. His foster parents were gunna be hella pissed; but this was pretty much a weekly occurrence at this point. After staring at the murky polluted water for several minutes, a slightly older colt approached him; wondering what was wrong. Fearing ridicule, Luke started to walk away, but the colt stopped him.

At this point, risk evaluation took hold and Luke began running through possible outcomes. They weren't pretty. Worst case scenario, this stranger wanted him dead. That wasn't terribly unlikely, because nopony liked a blank-flank scar-faced loser. Word spread fast at the preschool. Luke thought his face might look even less appealing after this ordeal ended. If only he had just swallowed his emotions and caught the Red Line to go home, none of this shit would have even happened.

But the colt reached out a hoof. Tentatively, Luke shook it. "Hi, I'm Tender Hoof! What's your name, and why are you so depressed?" Asked the colt. His name was evidently a glaring misnomer. For a colt that was obviously less than 5 years of age, he had a grip of iron.

"My name is Luke Mooncliff. What do you want?" Luke queried.

"Just to know what's wrong. You seemed upset. Are you okay?" Tender responded.

Luke finally made the connection. This pony wasn't like the others. He didn't care that Luke was a scar-faced loser. He was genuinely concerned for his feelings. He had made a friend.

* * *

_Don't worry, this ain't some gay story in which Luke and Tender fall in love, I promise. It's all heterosexual from what I can see of the future at present. It's going to be more action-based in the future, but I needed Luke to have a friend/group of friends in order to advance the plot and timescale further. Next chapter will be yet more years into the future, and will be entirely different, I promise. And does anyone like the subtle things I've included? Like the foreshadowing and "Purple Heart" which is a military award for wounded soldiers?_


	4. Chapter 3

"Day" 19, week 32. Weeks later.

Life was getting better. Lots of the bullying had stopped after Tender Hoof had reached out to him. He even had some more friends now. Brawny Flank, who had been taunted for his name- until he pounded in the faces of his tormentors.; Since then, he had been pretty much a loner. Handsome Shadow, who didn't realize that he got all the mares without trying. And then Lightning Crasher, who was a "cool" and athletic Pegasus that ditched his collective of friends in order to show Luke that he wasn't alone. But Luke could tell that he still kind of had a problem. He was just too rebellious and cocky. His friends had later apologized for the mockery, and there was no longer any tension between them, but they hung out with different people now.

Oh, and his foster parents had reformed their drinking habits, to a degree. Luke was no longer completely neglected at any rate; but it was hard to vie for attention against 4 other younger foals, especially when you don't want it anyway.

He was walking home from school alongside his friends and Cloud Chaser, who was Lightning's marefriend. Not too many of the kids had one yet; they were only 3 (13 in Human years, for you readers); but there were some, and Lightning was one of them. Despite being the athletic type, it amazed Luke how well he did other things, like thinking every once in a while. The other kids at his school had proved that the human body only had enough Oxygen to fuel either the brain, or the skeletal muscles; never both. But Lightning shattered this assumption. He got A's in everything while not trying. He played poker and chess in class. No matter how hard they tried, the teachers couldn't seem to lower his grade in a "fair" way, even though they all hated him.

They stopped for a Pony Cola and fries at a nearby restaurant, with Shadow claiming that he would pay for the food. They ordered and began talking about school shit.

"So how is Mrs. Flower Stem?" Brawny asked.

"Lesbian." Replied Lightning.

The others laughed, but Brawny didn't.

"What's wrong with her? " The earth pony queried. "She seems really nice, and she doesn't give that much homework."

"She told me to stop playing Minesweeper during the test. I told her I was finished and to fuck off, and she gave me detention. I have to serve it next Monday." Answered Lightning.

"That isn't so bad… Teachers don't like being cussed at." He responded.

"And I don't like teachers. What does this have to do with anything anyway?" Retorted Lightning.

"Whatever, let's just drop it"

"I dropped your mom's panties last night."

"Take that back"

"Fine. But you suck at arguing, for the record."

"That I can live with."

"So we're cool"

"Yeah."

Cloud Chaser winced a little. Sometimes her coltfriend could be a major dick. It didn't take much to piss people off, and he didn't seem to recognize that. Luckily Brawny was more cool-headed and had the sense to not only stop the toxic discussion, but also to weather the famed maternal insult that Lightning pulled off so well and everyone feared. Either way, any crisis had been averted.

"Can we leave now that we aren't going to kill each other?" Prompted Tender Foot.

"Yeah, but we gotta pay." Said Shadow.

"Um. Guys…" Responded Lightning.

"What?" All said simulaneously.

"I kinda don't have the money. I must have left it in my locker."

"Fuckin kidding me," muttered Shadow; the exasperation evident on his face. "I need to get home! I have a ton of homework, not to mention that I have yard work and stuff to do." He continued.

"We can call someone's mom to come and pay the bill," suggested Cloud Chaser.

"I don't have a mom," offered Luke.

"Mine can come if I call her now, but she's at work and can't get here for at least an hour," stated Brawny.

"That's not good enough!" Said Shadow.

"Well. We have a number of options available. Either all of us work to make up the money, which will likely take a while. We can wait for Brawny's mom to buy us out of this 26 dollar hole we're in… Or…" He explained. A mischeivious smile curled up on his face.

"Do go on," asked Cloud Chaser.

` "We can always walk out on the bill," he said.

"Hell no. I'm too pretty for juvie," said Brawny.

Lightning and Shadow both snorted.

"I'm for it," said Shadow. "I REALLY need to get home soon or I'll be behind."

The others agreed, if grudgingly. The only resolute dissenter was Brawny.

"I evaluate our chances of being caught as .024%, with a 2.9% chance of being caught and easily talking our way out of it. The waitress is on the other side of the room and won't see us. The managers are in the kitchen checking on the food. And the hostess is seating someone," said Lightning.

Brawny consented. They walked out on the check.

Luke felt a pang of guilt that slowly vanished as he walked home. In that moment; without realizing it; his heart hardened. He was no longer the innocent foal. Now he would do what he needed to do when he needed to do it.


	5. Chapter 4

"Day" 32, week 49. Many weeks later.

It was Friday, and the group was slowly walking home, enjoying their freedom. They stopped to give some bread to a homeless pony, and then made their way home. It had been a while, but true to their characters, Lightning had a new marefriend and everyone else was still single.

They dropped brawny off first, then Shadow, then Lightning; leaving Luke to finish the trek home alone, like usual.

Luke stopped.

He stopped, that's the best way to describe it.

He stopped moving.

He stopped blinking.

He stopped breathing.

He stopped thinking.

"No way…" he gasped.

Tears began to stream from his eyes.

He breathed again, choking.

His house was gone.

His foster family was gone.

His everything was gone.

In the place of his old house stood a charred pile of ash and dead ponies.

His dad had a drinking problem and they were short on cash to begin with.

Unbeknownst to Luke and the family, he had turned to crime.

Becoming a criminal is easy. But it can be impossible to sever the ties you make.

He paid for trying.

Sirens.

Darkness.

* * *

_Short chapter, but idgaf. Consider the plot successfully moved forward._


	6. Chapter 5

"Day" 5, week 12. The following year.

Luke was running out of food. Again. He had been out on the streets for quite a while. The foster office had practically thrown him out on the street. These were times harder than Chuck Norris's penis. At least Luke had the sense to get a job and support himself, even if he had no place to sleep. But he had just been laid off (hard times, remember the joke above?) and he was pretty much done. All he had left was his friends, who kept him fed when their parents weren't looking. But it wasn't enough. He had a good run, but it was over. The streets had claimed him.

The pain in his stomach got to him. He gave in. He saw a couple eating a pizza across the square. Hungrily, with death and desperation in his eyes, he crossed the plaza. He crouched down behind a statue nearby them, noticing how little energy he had left. He nonchalantly grabbed the purse of the woman and ran like hell, not looking back. He hated to do it. It hurt him inside, but not nearly as much as the hunger.

"Stop thief!" The woman finally cried as he was almost out of sight.

Nope. No chance. Easy.

It had gone even better than Luke had thought it would. There was a phone in the purse, but Luke wasn't stupid. He threw it in the river. He ditched the purse too. May as well be a stylish outlaw. He checked the wallet, finding a credit card and 80 $ cash. He could milk 100 $ or so from the credit card before it would be deactivated and dangerous to use. He also found a granola bar and some mints, which he wolfed down to satisfy his immediate desire to eat a horse (cannibal!). Looks like he would be eating tonight after all. Finally stopping to catch his breath in an alleyway, he looked down. Wow. A small knife and pair of handcuffs had appeared on his left flank. He was no longer a blank flank. But it was bittersweet. He was ashamed at having been predestined to hurt the livelihoods of others.

It was a shame that dissipated completely once his money ran out and he got hungry again. He was a criminal.


	7. Chapter 6

"Day" 17, week 12, a few days later.

There were fucking posters all over the place. Apparently this was a big deal. Some hotshot magician was coming to town tonight and ALL of the little spoiled brat foals in lower Manehattan were going to take Mommy by the hand and go to see her. Luke kicked one mounted to a post. It was acts like that that made him sick. She would pretend to pull off feats of trickery while secretly resorting to magic. Kind of the opposite of the way things happen in the human world, but whatever; I'm breaking the fourth wall here. But with any luck, there would be lots of unguarded pockets ripe for harvest. So he bought a ticket, hoping the profit would outweigh the cost.

That night:

Luke was doing pretty well. He'd managed to nick $36, a wristwatch, and someone's bag of popcorn. He decided to sit and watch the show for a second. Immediately, he noticed something wasn't right. Her horn wasn't even glowing. Wut. Everypony's horn glowed when they did magic. Luke decided to investigate. He carefully watched her hands. There. He saw it. Nice. This mare actually knew what she was doing, unlike so many others. His brain started churning. These techniques could prove extremely useful, if only… He decided on a course of action.

Later, after the show:

Luke leaped out of the shadows, catching the mare completely off guard, filling her mouth with a rag, then quickly trapping her hooves to fully incapacitate her. Nice. Not bad for a rookie. He allowed himself a breath before staring into the fearful eyes. He dragged her into the dimly lit room and shut the door before removing her rag.

"What is your name?" Inquired Luke.

"I am the great and powerful Trixie! Behold my awesomeness, even in defeat!" She said loudly.

"Dafuq are you talkin bout nigga. You ass is mine. Now stop being so loud and I won't hafta smack a bitch."

"The great and powerful Trixie submits to the will of nopony!"

Luke shook his head to clear his thoughts. Apparently his tough black pony act wasn't working. He decided to try appealing to her better nature.

"Look girl. I just want to know how you managed to pull off all that sleight of hand and trickery without using magic. It was pretty impressive."

Trixie beamed, then looked unhappy, then smiled again.

"I know, it's sad. My magic doesn't work anymore. But the great and powerful Trixie lets no obstacle stop her on her path to greatness! Trixie will be the best travelling showpony in equestria!" She exclaimed.

"Keep it down"

"The great and powerful Trixie will 'keep it down' when she pleases!"

Clearly it was time to assert his authority in this situation again, things were getting out of hand. This mare didn't seem to realize that he was in control of this marenapping. Cautiously, he reached out and smacked her, immediately regretting the decision. It clearly hurt her beyond physical pain. Her pride was wounded, and a lot. He hated himself for doing this to her. She was confident, and that was something Luke respected, but it had no place in this current situation.

She sniffled.

"Sorry. I don't want to hurt you, but you need to understand that I'm in control here." He said.

"The great and powerful Trixie is sorry."

"Thank you. I apologize. But can you teach me some of your tricks?

"Sure. Can you release the great and powerful Trixie from her bonds?"

"Sure you won't run away?" Luke asked.

"Trixie promises."

She didn't run immediately. It was a good start. Over the next few hours in the dimly lit room, Luke did more than learn some tricks from Trixie. He befriended her too. She was horribly vain, but skilled and friendly. Luke released her, knowing she would tell no one, but hoping he would meet her again. She was going off to Baltimare the following morning for a show that night, but by her nature it wouldn't be long before she was back in town.


	8. Chapter 7

"Day" 32, week 23. A few weeks later

Luke got the itchy fingers on his way "home" from lunch. He had taken a wallet that was lying on the ground, but that just wasn't a rush… He hadn't made any real plays in over a week and it was starting to affect him. He decided to hit up his boys and go after something more high profile and more honorable than pickpocketing some old lady, which he still cringed when he did, and only did when he was short on food. There truly is honor among thieves, and Brawny had fallen out of it when he decided to "quit" and turned Lightning in to the cops. So far they hadn't paid him back for that yet, but Luke was willing to wait until retaliation was less expected. He still had Shadow, Lightning, and Tender (now called Iron Hoof), but it hurt him that his number one enforcer had betrayed him.

They were now openly recruiting, but it's hard to recruit for a gang when doing such a thing requires public notice, and yet cannot be publicized. An interesting paradox that was making expansion impossible. Anyway, they currently had a base set up in an abandoned roadside stand. Tender and Shadow still lived at home, hiding the secret but helping their friends on small hits and by supplementing their diet when possible, while Lightning had officially run away and was also a full time criminal. His family had never done much for him either.

So Luke began to think, which was always dangerous. He wanted to do something big, that would set him ahead on the streets for quite some time. And he wanted it to be on someone who deserved it. He ruled out Brawny. It was too early and the move would be expected. So he ran through a list of ponies in Manehattan: The rich snobby ones that could take a hit and **deserved** to. He finally settled on a target. Diamond Shine was a unicorn that had clawed his way to the top of the corporate ladder in Manehattan by any means necessary; making a lot of enemies on the way. He had a son, Opal Shine, that had always tormented Luke in school. Yes, he would do nicely as a target. It was fun going after high profile targets. There was more bounty to be had, and it hurt them less. The only downside was that they had higher level security. But with any luck, that wouldn't matter. Luke's crew was pretty good.

"Day" 39, week 23, 7 days later.

It was a pretty good night for the raid. The air was crisp and cool, but not frigid. The group had completed their reconnaissance yesterday and was completely sure that the entire family excluding Opal Shine would be absent, and he would be fairly easy to deal with if they executed the plan properly.

The mansion was a pretty large one, with locked ugly windows, a locked wrought iron fence, and mid-grade security system. Piece of cake. There was a safe with a decent sum of money and valuables in it, likely worth about $ 25,000 total. But unfortunately the Shine family DID believe in banks. They would not be bankrupt after tonight by any definition.

The group waited until the maid left for the night, then waited 4 more minutes before sniffing the night air one last time.

Silently, one by one, Luke and Lightning jumped the fence, crouching behind a shrubbery until Shadow gave the clear signal over the headset. They approached the door, avoiding the gaze of the lone security camera easily. Luke took his position next to the wall and hoisted Lightning up onto the second floor balcony. Lightning snuck in through the cracked window and dismantled the alarm system with remote help from Shadow. It was time. Luke drew his knife and silently forced the door open. Tender/Iron did the same with the back door and they met in the kitchen. They climbed the staircase and found lightning posititioned next to the second floor bedroom. No noise at all now. They waited until all had their weapons drawn.

Iron Hoof busted down the door, the fancy wood distintegrating against his hooves.

Opal Shine had no clue what even happened . One second he was sitting on his bed, looking at mares on his computer, the next he was tied up, gagged and forced into his own closet. He struggled against his bonds, but it wasn't any use. The 3 dark clad teenagers injected the tranquilizer and he went beddie bye.

They made their way up to the third floor and to the safe.

Luke sharpened his knife while waiting for shadow and Lightning to open the door. He began to think again.

Diamond Shine had hurt a lot of ponies in his time, and had raised his son to do the same. But did he deserve this? Yes. Yes, he did. In fact, he deserved nothing less than death for all the suffering and anguish he had caused the working class of Lower Manehattan for 32 years. There were even rumors that he was working with Nightmare Moon on some of his enterprises.

The rage boiled up in Luke. He grabbed one of the sacks of valuables that Lightning offered him, and the group started down the staircase. On the second floor, Luke spotted a grill and smiled. Perfect. This would do. Without telling his friends, he quickly threw Opal Shine out the window. He would not be branded a murderer, at least not today. He opened the gas valve on the propane and continued after his friends. They exited the mansion, and Luke nonchalantly waited for his friends to leave before flipping a lit match behind him and fleeing the scene.

A lot of hate and pain had gone through that wrought iron fence, and stared through those ugly yellow windows for quite some time, but not anymore. The Shine family was ruined. Not destitute: they would survive, but they would never torment the city again. His friends questioned him about his actions, but he didn't bother explaining, and they didn't press him. Today he had settled a personal vendetta, rid the city an absolute scourge, and acquired a large sum of wealth. He rewarded himself with ice cream and a donut.


	9. Chapter 8

"Day" 40, week 23, The following evening.

Rainbow was flying home after a long day of clearing out the dark, gloomy skies. Pinkie Pie popped up out of nowhere on an adjacent cloud.

"Goddamnit Pinkie! Stop doing that!" Exclaimed a surprised Rainbow Dash.

"Sorry Dashie. I was just wondering if you could come help us with something down at Sweet Apple Acres."

"I dunno, I'm pretty tired."

"Pleeeeeeaaasssseee!?"

"Fine, but nothing too time consuming, okay?"

"Okie dokie lokie!"

Pinkie Pie vanished and Rainbow adjusted her course 10 degrees to the East, heading for the apple farm.

Strangely enough, nopony appeared to be home.

She knocked on the door, but there was no response.

"Guys?"

Nothing. She opened the door.

"SURPRISE!" Yelled everypony.

"Wha…"

"It's your BIRTHDAY silly!"

"Oh… I guess it is. Sweet!"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Pinkie screamed right in her ear.

After her brain stopped ringing, Rainbow smiled weakly.

"So… What now?"

"Now we celebrate!"

"But… There's no food or cake or anything."

Pinkie frowned. Clearly she knew this already and was unhappy at having not been able to provide for her guest of honor.

Rainbow quickly adjusted her stance: "I mean… It's okay. We don't really need that kind of thing anyway, right? We can have fun with eachother?"

"Of course!" Pinkie's smile returned.

After dancing and chatting for several minutes, Rainbow's curiosity got the best of her, so she asked why there was no food.

"Well, my flour and dairy suppliers have started rationing the food they give out."

Applejack continued for her: "There's a huge famine a brewin I reckon. The crops are finally dyin' on account of the lack of sunlight that they needin ta grow."

Fluttershy nodded. "Some of my animals are getting sick. There just isn't enough food to go around and keep everyone satisfied." She said softly.

"I jest can't think a what in the tarnation we're supposed to do! This whole eternal darkness thing and whatnot is makin it a damn sight harder to do mucha anythin. I hear it's even affectin the weather ponies. Have you noticed anythin strange up there in th' clouds Rainbow?"

Rainbow nodded after thinking for a second. There had been an unscheduled thunderstorm in Baltimare the other day, and the temperature throughout all of equestria was 5 degrees lower than it should be and still dropping.

Twilight cleared her throat before giving her insight.

"Logically, this all makes sense. Celestia's warming magic must finally be wearing off, which is causing 2 things. One, the drop in weather and the loss of seasonal changes. Secondly, it's preventing the plants from performing the traditional photosynthesis reaction in which carbon dioxide and hydrogen hydroxide combine with an electron excited by a proton to form Glucose and Oxygen. By removing the photon from the equation, the plants can't store any energy, so they suffer. And since animals eat plants, now they get no energy and suffer too."

Applejack interjected. "I can hones'ly say that I don' understand one fuckin' word yer mouth just said."

Twilight was taken aback by the language, and blinked. She cleared her throat, and continued in simpler terms: "But what if we could change the equation, and the way the reaction works? I might be able to devise an apple tree that doesn't require solar energy to store energy as sugar." She froze, standing absolutely still for three seconds as she had a flash of pure insight. "Gotta go!" She raced out of the building, knocking over a candle and hastily apologizing on her way to the library.

"So wait! You're going to find some eggheaded way of making plants grow without light?" Rainbow queried, clearly out of her element, but to no avail. Twilight was long gone.


	10. Chapter 9

Day 40, week 23, simultaneously.

It was a nice, crisp night on the streets. The mood was fairly relaxed, only vulnerable targets were having their wallets snatched. Mostly, they were just having fun, horsing around. It was really nice owning the streets. Certain ponies had already learned to fear the shifty yet high-class foursome. Trixie's tricks were paying off for the gang. Noone had ever been nabbed for anything. The profits were rolling in. The neigh-borhood kids were looking up to them with a mixture of awe and fear. Life is great when you're the alpha. The crew decided to go for some pizza, and strutted into Marcinni's like "What up, I got a big cock." People deliberately avoided looking at them. Luke felt a bit bad. There was really no call to be so intimidating. But it didn't matter, they were just here for pizza and maybe Marcinni could get them some beer.

They sat at the bar and waited for the waitress to come, talking about the game last night, and the pursesnatching they had executed minutes earlier on Fourth, by the subway. They had made $186, which was plenty; not to mention they had a lot in reserve already. A fly was buzzing around his ankles, and Luke lowered his hoof to stomp on it; but connected with something soft. It was a wallet. So basically what the fuck. Luck is the most powerful force in the universe. It contained not only $70 and some change, but a few cigarretes, photos of somepony named Liquid Scar and his marefriend, and a brass key; which Luke pocketed.

After reveling in their good fortune, they enjoyed the pizza and headed out to Ferrier Field to play some ultimate Frisbee, taking a side alley. They were stopped. The same burly pony in the pictures from the wallet was there, and he had some friends. None of them looked happy to meet Luke. Luke nodded to lightning, who disappeared behind some nearby boxes, looking to flank the enemy if things got ugly.

"Now, we don want any trouble here punk", he continued, "But that there is my wallet, and I need something in it. "

Luke connected the dots and instantly realized the importance of the key. But he wasn't about to give it up. Any second now…

The standoff continued.

To stall, Luke threw some money at them.

"It was about $70, right?"

"Give me the wallet. It wasn't just the money. I had pictures of my marefriend in there."

Luke had to stop himself from laughing. This guy wasn't really even a good liar.

A few more seconds.

"So um. How about them Yankees?" Luke said, setting the scene, trying to look and talk like he was vulnerable and nervous while lightning snuck up from behind.

"Dude, shut the FUCK UP."

There it was. The signal from Lightning. "Quick! Look behind you!" said Luke.

Liquid Scar didn't flinch. "What? Do you think I'm stupid?"

"Yes."

All hell broke loose. Lightning from behind threw an absolutely brutal, crippling karate chop at Liquid scar's neck, feeling himself fracturing the vertebrae on the downstroke, and the goon crumpled to the ground.

The rest of the thugs were surprised for half a second too long; waiting for an order that didn't come from the mouth of their unconscious leader, and that was their downfall. Else, they were greater in number and significantly but not overwhelmingly better at hand to hand combat. As it was, it was an absolute rout. Within seconds, the entire gang was on their butts; and most of them wouldn't be waking up for a few minutes. Only Shadow had taken a punch; and he was going to be fine, only his abs were going to be sore for a few days. The sirens started, and Luke & friends decided it was in their best interest to leave the scene, but not before relieving one or two gang members of their money.

"You'll regret this!" sputtered a colt, coughing up blood from where he was hooved in the chest.


	11. Chapter 10

"Day" 40, week 23, late that "night".

The black alicorn stared unblinkingly at her empty plate; thinking about her empire. Things weren't going well. Las Pegasus had formally declared a state of resistance against her reign (Get it? Reign? They're horses, HAHAHAHHA ok nvm).

The servant approached, bearing food. Nightmare Moon opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, the servant had already set down the main course and dashed off, not daring to look back. She sighed and picked at her oats. Life was really depressing sometimes. Then she remembered what she had planned for tonight, and perked up. She hastily finished her meal, and galloped off to her room, ducking under her bed, through the hatch there, and descended down into the darkness.

"Day" 41, week 23, the following "morning".

Twilight and Applejack were laboring over their work, having skipped breakfast. Twilight was devising different genetic modifications to plant DNA, which Applejack was testing and helping to grow. A tired Spike was responsible for maintaining the scientific accuracy of the trials, and recording data for Twilight. He started to daydream, glancing out the window. Funny. It kind of looked like the sun was rising. Suddenly alert, Spike blinked twice and sat up; staring at the glowing light rising slowly higher above the horizon. It had been so long. He had no words, simply staring dumbfoundedly at the light. But just as slowly as it had risen, it began descending once more.

"No! No!" Spike exclaimed.

"What is it?" Twilight asked.

"Nothing." He continued. "I had just dropped my pen." The sun was already gone. Nopony else had seen it. He didn't want to sound like an idiot. Back to work.

Strain R-347-Δ was promising. Without any light whatsoever, some sprouts had appeared. The plants of the same genetics that were provided artificial light, however, were developing much faster. But hey, it was a start. Spike recorded the height and total vegetative mass before heading back to Twilight's computer to graph his work for the morning.

But he couldn't focus. A mixture of sleep deprivation and not being able to get the image of the sun out of his head meant that Twilight had to go back into the system and fix 7 different mistakes; a new personal record for Spike.

* * *

_Yeah, so this chapter was short too. But it's actually crucial for the direction I've decided to take. In fact, I'm worried that I might not have gotten it quite right, which is a feeling I haven't really felt before when writing this story. I hope you enjoyed it anyway, and will more once everything starts coming together more clearly. I have something big planned for C11. It's unrelated to what transpired this chapter; but I guarantee that it will change some things and move the story forward. In a few chapters, some new major characters and powers will be introduced. _


End file.
